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Sunday, August 18, 2013

Good Thing I Lost my ***!

Living in Vegas, you may think I am referring to The House, as in gambling, but no - I mean literally lost my ass! I have to fit through here..﻿﻿

Tight Squeeze
Oh no, can a card table really be used for FMQ???

To get in here..

Yessirree, I created a new 'bottom line' when I recently set up my new-to-me Juki...
and a great weight control incentive!

Have you been touring studios spaces & fabric stashes this week? If not, visit the Studio Spotlight Party it Ellison Lane!
And if you are really brave, like me, you too can expose your passion in blogland!

I am making every effort to edit well, this post may be a bit lengthy. I have a few admissions to post about...
But lets start with the intro:﻿﻿﻿﻿
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11' x 14' Sewing Space from Entry

One of the two bedrooms in our home is dedicated to sewing. To score on this room, I am not allowed anything in our garage, or our front entry closet. And, I have to make room for guests to sleep in here when needed. (surprise surprise, most prefer the strip hotels after traveling out to Hendertucky and crashing in a quilting room!)
Notice another tight squeeze to fit into my piecing station.

My first admission: I am a super-thrifty quilter. I have always admired make-do quilts, and I refuse to believe that quilting must be an expensive passion. Almost everything in my studio, and home for that matter, is secondhand, including 80% of my fabric. I know the value of quality however, and I am the original owner of my Bernina 1020. The table, made by Bernina (and quite possibly made for my machine), I scored about 10yrs later, for $75 on Craigslist. The cutting table is also an ad-find, and came home for $7 right after we moved to Vegas. Lets go in and dig around a bit more..

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66" x 54" Walk-In Palette

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Sitting at my Bernina, I get to admire my fabric. I am planning a post next week to explore fabric; how I score fabric, and how I treat and care for the fabrics I sell hoard.
From this vantage, I can glance at the TV too.

But we have no cable/dish, just basic old antenna TV (did I mention our budget has an attitude?) So, more often, I listen to audio books. Yesterday I finished The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier. The yellow wardrobe is crammed with creative things, most not related to quilting specifically. I keep silks, polys, and textured fabrics in there. The cabinet left of that stores batiks and some hand-dyed.

One of my favorite finds is the Cathedral hanging (above the TV), from the estate of a gal's embroidery business in Pahrump, NV. As I often do, I sold two and kept one. Since I bought it, I have found several of the fabrics that were used in it. I have several yards of that purple one, and just used some of it in the Lucky Penny Churn Dash Blocks on my design wall last week...

I can see it on my left. I used cardboard-accordion style measuring mats, covered with flannel to make my design wall. It works quite well, but my AC blows above it so I still end up using pins abit.

I post a lot of new project starts (thanks to Cat Patches New FO Linky for freeing our reservations about this!). There are always one or two on the wall.
And I caught a glimpse in the photo of my FQ shelving. We will take a closer look at those this week too...

Above my cutting table are some tools and treasures:

The wooden sewing box is accompanied by the letter my Grandmother wrote before she passed in 94. Her father made the box in 1890's, for her grandmother's mending, done on Wednesdays. She also left for me her Toby collection and these great little shelves.

The photo holds yet another admission. This is actually another grandmother, my father's mom. If you look closely, you will see that the glass is broken. It is domed glass and I have never figured how to replace it. I broke it some 25 years ago, when Grandma was nearing death and we were visiting. I was curious bout her age in the photo, and rather than ask Grandpa, I attempted to slide the photo out to look at the back. I will never forget taking it to the other room to show Grandpa what I had done. I was in my 20's and felt six.
He thought Marion was 16 in the photo.

A bit reluctantly, I will now expose the area behind me, the area previously hidden from the general public, and my last admission of sorts...

Hmm.. Shelving holds tickings, canvas, home dec items, and a bit of denim. An odd basket I keep my bias bindings in. The orpan block pillow I quilted and haven't finished, on top of chenille dish towels, also in process. And oddities on the bulletin board. I suppose this could be a fixed up a bit.

While were down here, take a look at a great shelving cart I recently picked up:

It fit right under my card table Juki, and holds quilting thread, Juki stuff, UFOs, things I want to work on (such as big-stitching circles on that Nano Ito gauze--- purchased at a garage sale!!)

Back to my seat,on my right, I can access most of my thread on this clever hanger Ty made for me.

The nails are long enough to fit a bobbin on the end to keep them together. I use pipe cleaners for ones that are too long- mostly with the Juki now, for quilting.

Whew! Thanks for hanging out, but that is all you get!

What, an encore you say?

One more admission?

I started another new project yesterday, dropping all those WIPS to create a project Ty requested of me. He is participating in a couple art shows and asked me to make something 'quilty', inspired by Piet Mondrian, for his booth. I started in last night, just improv piecing strips and pieces...